Never Mind the Darkness, We Still Can Find a Way
by you invented the word tragedy
Summary: If there's one thing Chase Davenport has learned since this whole mess started, it's that you never take a single moment for granted.


**Title: Never Mind the Darkness, We Still Can Find a Way**

 **Add on to the title (because it was too big to fit in the character box limit thing) [it hit the limit on how much words I could fit in there]: (Cause Nothing Lasts Forever, Even Cold November Rain)**

 **Summary: If there's one thing Chase Davenport has learned since this whole mess started, it's that you never take a single moment for granted.**

 **Add on to the main part of the summary: (Or the one where the Davenport's & co are in a Zombie Apocalypse, & there's injuries, fear, hard choices, tears, anger, hopelessness, desperation, despair & sacrifices.)**

 **Categories: Angst & Tragedy.**

 **Also falls under the categories of Horror, Suspense, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Friendship, and Family.**

 **The title "Never Mind the Darkness, We Still Can Find a Way (Cause Nothing Lasts Forever, Even Cold November Rain)" was taken from the band Guns N' Roses, and their song "November Rain". I don't own that song or the band, duh.**

 **Many more characters than listed. OC's present.**

 **Warnings: Mentions of past character death (as well as implied and shown character death), blood, guns, injures (past and present mentions; both graphic and non-descriptive), guts, flashbacks for plot sake, very hungry/starving/malnourished people, dehydration, characters willingly sacrificing their lives to save the majority, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), depressing thoughts (ranging from small to moderate to extremely severe), mentions of past (legal age) drinking, suicide, car accidents, mentions of past pregnancies/miscarriages. Mentions of other fandom characters and ships here and there. (Also, gay ships and my own personal OTPs galore. Don't like gay ships, then don't read.)**

 **Rated T for the trigger warnings. Also, it's a zombie apocalypse AU, so there's gonna be a ton of rotting flesh and disfigurements of the undead (AKA zombies - who are called the Infected throughout the story by the characters because they *can* call them that.) If you don't like things with zombies or the like, then seriously, click the back button now and don't even begin to read this fanfiction.**

 **Paring(s): TV show: Mentions of Leo Davenport-Dooley/Janelle [Brown?], mentions of past Donald Davenport/Tasha Davenport-Dooley. Mentions of (past) Bree Davenport/Sebastian.**

 **Character/OC: Chase/Katherine Sedakar, Bree/Dylan Sedakar, Adam/Isabelle Henderson, mentions of past Douglas/Erin Whitely, Lucas Thieriot/Marcus Davenport. [Also, Joe Sugg/Caspar Sugg [Lee]]**

 **Sedakar is pronounced Sea-dar-car.**

 **Thieriot is pronounced Theory-it.**

 **Everyone's ages in this AU (Alternate Universe) fanfiction, "Never Mind the Darkness, We Still Can Find a Way (Cause Nothing Lasts Forever, Even Cold November Rain)" has been assumed, bumped up and/or changed (except for Caspar Lee's and Joe Sugg's.) Keep that in mind.**

 **Everyone in this fanfiction, "Never Mind the Darkness, We Still Can Find a Way (Cause Nothing Lasts Forever, Even Cold November Rain)" is OOC (Out Of Character) for legitimate reasons. Don't like AU fanfictions or OOC characters? Then don't read. Simple as that, people.**

 **With that said, here are the ages for characters in "Never Mind the Darkness, We Still Can Find a Way (Cause Nothing Lasts Forever, Even Cold November Rain)":**

 **Adam: 20**

 **Bree: 19**

 **Chase: 18**

 **Leo: 17**

 **Katherine: 18**

 **Dylan: 20**

 **Isabelle: 19**

 **Joe: 24**

 **Caspar: 22**

 **Donald: 44 (The writers are so bad with ages in the show it's not even remotely funny, especially Donald's age (I cringe just thinking about it), so I'm making Donald 44.)**

 **Marcus: 17**

 **Jason: 17**

 **Janelle: 17**

 **Spin: 13**

 **Bob: 12**

 **Jenna: 25**

 **Actors/actresses for the OC's:**

 **Ashley Benson as Katherine Sedakar**

 **Alexander Ludwig as Dylan Sedakar**

 **Vanessa Hudgens as Isabelle Henderson**

 **Troye Sivan as Jason Thieriot**

 **Olga Fonda as Erin Whitely**

 **Youtubers:**

 **Joe Sugg as himself**

 **Caspar Lee as himself**

 **Dan Howell as himself**

 **Phil Lester as himself**

 **I don't own YouTube, the Youtubers mentioned, or the TV show Lab Rats (*cries in a corner*) I only whatever you don't recognize, like my OC's and this plot.**

 **Enjoy "Never Mind the Darkness, We Still Can Find a Way (Cause Nothing Lasts Forever, Even Cold November Rain)".**

 **XXX**

 **Chase's POV**

Bob's loud groan of pain completely rips Chase out of his loud, panicked, and buzzing thoughts.

Looking at Bob's injury for a few seconds already makes Chase feels a little sick and a little dizzy. He swallows hard but there is no salvia to wet his dry mouth. He hasn't had anything to drink in a while. No relatively clean water, nothing. His dry tongue moves slowly in his mouth and sweeps outward to lick his chapped, burning and dry lips.

He can't panic. Not in front of Spin and Bob. He has to stay strong in front of his friends, in front of his group.

"Oh my g-gosh, o-oh my gosh, o-oh my gosh," Bob wheezes out after a small gulp of horrible rotted air, leaning back to press his against the chipped, dull gray wall behind him, "how-how bad does it—how bad does it - ugh - how bad d-does it l-look, p-people?" Bob's voice shakes really badly, and Chase winces a bit, clenching his bloodied hands at his sides before unclenching them, clenching them again before unclenching them, repeating the process over and over again. Chase can't help it, it's a nervous little tick he had developed over the course of the long, horrible nightmarish year and a half.

Everyone in their group has/had developed a nervous habit.

Bob's pale face is sunken, and a horrible shade of gray and looks a little bit ashen as well. Chase notes that sweat streaks thickly down Bob's once whole, babyish, round and slightly pudgy but now thin face. He's just on the positive side of the fine line between hungry, malnourished and starving; they all are.

Someone killed another living breathing human being over a package of cheese and crackers once. Almost two years ago, if someone in his school had told him that someone in the United States of America had literally slaughtered another human being for a small package of cheese and crackers, Chase would have laughed in their face. That idea would sound so ridiculous to him two years ago.

(Now it's a reality. It sucks to say the least.)

Bob's once-dark blonde hair turned permanently light brown a few months ago. Everyone in their group smells absolutely disgusting, seeing as no one in their group has had a proper hot and relaxing shower in a year and a half. (Taking quick, two minute showers in cold lakes, rivers - or any body of water that isn't completely 100% polluted with nothing but a bar of soap that's running out and some old square rags for that matter doesn't count.)

No one has had a proper shower, food, clothing, medicine, clean drinking water, or sleep since the world went down the toilet and was flushed straight to the bowels of the underworld a year and a half ago.

"It's not bad, Bob." Spin whispers brokenly, holding his friend's hand.

Bob whimpers, swallowing hard to wet his bleeding dry cracked lips. "A-are you sure it's n-not that bad, S-Spin?"

"I'm sure, I'm sure, Bob. I promise you that it's not that bad." Spin's voice doesn't crack or shake. Chase's surprised that it doesn't. Hell, even Spin looks like he's surprised for a moment, before his face goes from shocked to steady, caring and supportive in just a few seconds.

Bob's leg is as bad as it looks. It's as bad as it looks. It's as bad as it looks. It's as bad as it looks. The thought blasts through Chase's mind on repeat, like a broken record. Bob's leg is as bad as it looks. Heck, maybe it's _even worse_ than Chase thinks. Chase's surprised the kid hasn't passed out yet, but Bob is in complete shock, which is possibly the only thing keeping the suffering boy awake. (Chase doesn't know, he is not a doctor after all, but he has a pretty good guess that Bob is in shock.)

(Chase really wants to cry but he thinks that there are no tears left to produce, they've been all used up.)

Bob's leg looks like it went through a meat grinder. There's so many gashes and so much dried blood and so much still-wet, sticky blood on the ground, on his leg, on Bob's hands, on Spin's hands, on his own hands, on many other people's hands.

So many dead people.

A bone is protruding out of Bob's leg, and Chase doesn't know what bone is sticking out of his leg but it *is* sticking out; everyone can see it, Bob can see it, maybe even feel it (but maybe his body's gone into shock and he can't feel the pain in his leg). Bob's leg is as bad as it looks, maybe even worse.

(Poor Leo. Chase's younger stepbrother had projectile puked up what very little food - emphasis on "very little" food - he had in his stomach a while ago. Janelle and another member of his group are with him now.)

"I can't believe it. I manage to get injured while running, and there wasn't any Infected running after my hide. I-I knew there was a reason w-why I hated and still hate exercise." Bob croaks out, chuckling weakly.

Spin laughs, but it sounds more like a broken sob.

Bob's lips are an alarming shade of the color blue and they are shaking, only slightly to mess up his speech. His once-happy and carefree dark brown eyes are hazy. They look tear-filled, unfocused. Not quite there. Very scared, and they look almost glossy. Empty.

Chase really shouldn't have looked at Bob straight in the eyes, because now the only thing he wants to right now is break down and cry. (What do you know? He can actually produce tears now.)

The worst thing to think is very depressing.

The worst thing is that Chase _knows_ that he doesn't have the proper medical equipment or the experience to treat a nasty wound like that. He's totally sure that everyone knows that. Chase's bionic chip doesn't work. In fact, none of theirs do. Adam, Bree, and Chase's chips don't work. Leo's bionic arm and leg doesn't work. Chase can't digitally look up the facts on what to do on with an injury like this. Bree can't pick him up or take his hand or super speed him to a hospital or geo-leap him to safety, because the hospitals of the world are in shambles or completely obliterated or worse, roaming with Infected. Nowhere is safe anymore.

The world's electricity and all of the satellites up in space shut down in two days time of the deadly zombie virus outbreak that has no cure. The latter all hurtled down to the Earth and blew up in different parts of the world with big explosions, which caused large gaping craters, earthquakes, raging wildfires, and many people had moderate or even big injuries that killed them within minutes, agonizing hours, days, weeks, even months. So much death as well. Death either came instantly or it didn't.

(Katherine - Chase's girlfriend - and Dylan's - Bree's boyfriend - parents died too. He finds it really ironic and morbid that one of Mr. Davenport's satellites killed Katherine and Dylan Sedakar's parents.)

Bob will die. There's no way around it, no nice way to think or say it. You can't sugar coat death. Bob will be dead, or worse, become an Infected. An zombie - or an Infected as it's known in "Chase's" little group - intent on eating human brains or tearing human and animal's flesh off their still-living or dead bodies, biting into human skin to turn them into one of them - an Infected - doomed to wander the Earth for days, weeks, months, maybe even years until somebody else whose still really alive (as in a human being, not an Infected walking breathing-but-dead. . . _thing_ ) comes along and shoots poor Bob in the head or stabs him in the brain or cuts his head off.

It's not Chase's fault for Bob's injury. It's not anyone's fault really, not Spin's, heck, it's not even Bob's fault. It's not all Chase's fault for the deaths of his friends, his family, or his group members. But in the back of his dark, aching, depressing, jaded and numb mind, Chase knows that that doesn't— that doesn't make him feel any less guilty for it, at all.

"Look, we've got to move, we're not that far ahead of them." Them meaning the Infected, Infected meaning zombies, zombies meaning danger, danger means many more injuries that Chase may or may not be able to patch up, and so much more death. Chase glances across the expanse of dirty, abandoned and broken street and bleak, vandalized, crumbling buildings. Right now they look deceptively empty, but that won't always be the case. It never usually is.

Unfortunately, not being careful enough is how they lost four members of their moderate sized group. His "father" - Adam, Bree, and Chase all considered _Mr. Davenport_ as their father way more than their actual father Douglas - Douglas was lost in the large horde of the Infected. He stupidly - but don't forget heroically because it was also that as well - trying to save three of their members. No one in Chase's group knows what happened to him. He could be Infected or dead, and for Douglas's sake, Chase really hopes that he's dead.

(They don't want to go through that again. That's why Chase's scared that someone might put a gun to their head and pull the trigger someday. It would not be the first time, and he does not think it will be he last.)

"P-promise, Chase?" Bob's voice shakes him out of his thoughts.

He nods firmly. "I promise, Bob." He's so glad that his voice doesn't betray his thoughts.

Bob won't make it. But he doesn't want Bob nor Spin to know that.

He turns over his shoulder to call to the battered group of people fifty yards away, "Brandon! Michael! Come over here and help me, will ya?"

"Let's get you on your feet, okay?" He tries to give Bob a supportive smile but it turns into more of a grimace. He watches grimly as Brandon and Michael hoist the youngest and most injured of the group between them, balancing him between their frames, one of Bob's arms around each waist because the latter is badly injured and he isn't old enough or tall enough to wrap his arms around their shoulders. Spin follows closely behind them, his dusty and sweaty face full of despair and fear. Chase has a hard time ignoring Bob's grimaces and groans of pain, as they try to walk with him hobbling in the middle. As they slowly trek back to the group, Spin starts talking to Bob, talking about funny memories and making up funny stories to try and get his - and maybe even everybody's - minds off of the really horrible situation playing out in front of all of them.

Everybody watches or tries not to watch Bob struggle, or look at his nasty injury.

"Chase," Katherine calls his name, her extremely long blonde hair sashaying side to side as she bounds up to him, one of her hands resting on her three-weeks-pregnant tummy. "Is Bob…?" her voice gets quieter, and she takes his hand and she walks themselves over to a quieter place.

"He might not make it." Chase murmurs, his stomach dropping and voice thick.

"He has to." Katherine whispers, then embraces him. She buries her face into his chest, and she sighs shakily. "I love that little guy."

Chase and "his" group met Sebastian Thieriot **,** Isabelle Henderson, Sebastian's younger-by-a-year brother Lucas, Spin, Bob, Spin's twin brother Lanny, and a few others roughly six months ago, and those guys joined up with his group. They were nice additions. Adam took a liking to Bob almost immediately. Those two clicked and hit it off pretty well, and now they are best friends.

Chase hugs his girlfriend back, then moves back a bit, cups her cheeks gently with his hands and tilts her head up and kisses her. They stay like this for a few minutes before they have to go back to the group. Together, hand in hand, they walk back to the group.

He nods at his brother Adam and his sister Bree, who are grim faced. They seem to share the same thought at the same time: Bob is not going to make it.

With a leg as bad as Bob's, the kid won't be able to move on his own, let alone run.

Adam looks crushed by the news. His shoulders sag. Of course, why wouldn't he be crushed by it? Bob's been his best buddy for a while now. Bob's death will hurt Adam.

But Chase doesn't want to give up on Bob. He can't do it, because Spin and Adam are his two best friends.

"I'm fine, Spinny," Bob gasps every once in a while. Once he even starts singing a Lady Gaga song, just to get Spin to calm down. Watching them makes Chase's stomach twist, he knows he should be used to losing people by now.

It is… it's practically normal now. Chase even has a list in his mind, and there are a lot of crossed out names, a lot of names have been crossed out because those people are dead or missing in action. People who've left the group in the middle of the night, or people who publicly announced their decision to leave the group before turning and walking away. Or people who were there one day and just left. Those people who are most likely not to return, or are already dead.

Bob's name will be crossed off the list like so many others. Way too many others. Carl. Xavier. Ashlynn. Douglas Davenport. Quinn. Erin. Ivy. Vanessa. Mamrie Hart. Colleen. Lucas Friar. Ryan. Connor Franta. Ansel. Tasha Davenport-Dooley, Mr. Davenport's wife, Leo's mother, and Adam, Bree, and Chase's quota quote "surrogate mother". Lanny, Spin's twin brother, who was younger than Spin by just a few short minutes. Ingrid and Hannah. Jenna Skye (well, mentally that is.) Alfie Deyes. Corey. Seth. Bailey. Miranda. Farkle Minkus. Topanga Matthews. Zoë Sugg, Joe Sugg's older sister and only sibling. Sebastian, Jason's older brother by about a year. Rebecca. Uriel. Patrick. Carly. Kim Simmons. Eddie. Daniel Davenport **(1)** who was Adam, Bree and Chase's brother. Riley Matthews and Maya Hart. Dean Winchester. Jack Brewer. Louise and her daughter Darcy. Caitlin. Tris Prior. Grace Helberg. Kim Crawford and Jerry Martinez. Marcus Butler and his girlfriend Naomi. Haley. Peter. Bree's annoying friend Caitlin. Annabeth Chase, a blonde brainiac who was brave, kind, and who totally kicked butt at killing Infected and treating wounds. His friend, David. Adam's friend George. One of Bree's friends, Kayla. Leo's friend Piper Jacobson. Adam, Bree, Chase, Leo, Katherine, Isabelle, and Dylan's friends Oliver, Kaz, Doctor Horace Diaz and Alan Diaz, all from Mighty Med. (Skylar went crazy. She left Earth and went back to Caldera after killing all of their super hero friends and the hospital staff at Mighty Med.) Tobias Eaton, who was better known as "Four". Jimmy, or "Tank" as people called him, one of Adam's friends. Donald Davenport, Adam, Bree, and Chase's father. Sam Winchester. Castiel. Percy. Joey Graceffa. Sheryl. Veronica. James. Zuri. Sharon. William. Fourteen year old Maci and her ten year old baby brother Axel. Timothy. (Who are all Infected, dead or missing, and not in that order). And now Bob. . . The list just keeps on going. . . Chase should be used to it, but he's not.

(Chase wants to wake up from this nightmare, but it's not a nightmare. It's a reality, _his_ reality.)

Chase could never get used to watching the light wick out of someone's eyes, or hear their screams of pain, or their loud pleas for someone to _please please please somebody help them oh God oh God oh God oh God please please oh God_ as their flesh is torn from their bodies, or hear the gunshot echo across the buildings or open air as someone who was bitten and infected take their own life because they don't want to turn into an Infected and hurt living, breathing, still-human people in their undead state.

Any slight inclination to give up on Bob is abandoned because of Spin. Chase doesn't want another Jenna Skye. He can't handle that. He'd have to put a bullet in his brain if someone turned into another Jenna. He can't handle it, can't handle the way she stares off into space. Doesn't speak or smile or laugh anymore. Jenna looks like she's already been infected as she walks numbly, her long bright red hair in a ragged pile of long fiery red grime and knots. Her tired, gaunt, almost lifeless forest green eyes. Her pale skin stretched over bone. She doesn't eat much of anything. Chase feels guilty about that too, even though he knows that what's happened to her isn't his fault, but still—

Jenna was a mess after her boyfriend's Donovan's death, and then… then she lost the baby… Chase knows that death would be a blessing to Jenna. Maybe that's why she doesn't eat, barely washes herself, barely sleeps, moves on autopilot. Maybe that's why poor Jenna looks at a gun or a knife or a machete (or any other weapon capable of killing someone or an Infected) that is clasped in somebody's hands for far too long. Chase doesn't let her keep a weapon for a reason, and that reason being is that she wants to kill herself. Like a young lady named Sheryl did a few months back. Leo found her body. It wasn't pretty. There was another suicide after Sheryl's. It was a guy named James. Then there was another one after James, and it was a young lady named Zuri. Either way, Chase isn't going to let it happen again.

Eventually, when the sounds of Leo's puke hitting the ground stops, Leo and Janelle come back. Leo still looks shaken and a bit blanched, but at least there's no more vomit coming out of his mouth. Janelle is rubbing his back.

Chase clears his throat, and all chatter recedes. "Listen up everybody," he says loudly, and he could hear a pin drop if he wanted to (but nobody has a pin, why would they? It's useless against the Infected) it's that silent, and he takes a deep breath, once again trying hard to ignore Bob's muffled whimpers of pain - everyone is - before saying: "we need to get moving. Now."

"Where are we going to go?" A group member asks from somewhere in the crowd of people. They've lost so, so, so, _so_ many group members over the past year and a half, but have gained some - nineteen as of right now - more.

"I don't know," he admits, "but I don't feel like this place is safe enough, especially now with an injured group member. It's too open, and the buildings here aren't in the greatest condition either. We need to get to better, bigger stable buildings."

"Let's get moving to our new destination, people!" Katherine yells, and there's silence as her voice carries across the broken buildings of some random city. At least it spurs everyone into action. Chase's group members all scramble into action, collecting their things for the no doubt long and dangerous journey ahead.

 **XXX**

There's an horde of crawling and moaning Infected that ambush where they camped out. There's so much panic and a ton of sprays of coppery blood and fear and fighting. The pungent smell of Infected as they fall to the ground.

After the dust settles, there's two more of Chase's group members dead. A young man named Billy and a young women named Carolyn.

Two more names are crossed off Chase's list.

 **XXX**

There's suddenly a gunshot in the dead of night near Chase. His ears ring and he's feeling desperate, scared and shocked. After his ears have stopped ringing and Chase makes sure that there are no Infected around, and he quickly checks up on whose where - and trying to freak out - asking what's wrong, he gets an answer. then a few seconds later he hears Leo scream Janelle's name in anguish.

With an aching and sympathetic heart that goes out to Leo and to what his stepbrother must be feeling, Chase let's out a slow, jaded sigh with tears in his eyes and crosses Janelle's name off the list.

 **XXX**

 **More to come.**

 **(I apologize for any spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure mistakes, or any other mistake that doesn't look right in a story.)**

 **XXX  
**

 **Footnote (1) #1: Daniel Davenport is _not_ an OC. He will be/is a canon character in "Lab Rats: Bionic Island". **

**XXX**

 **(A/N: Might re-edit this chapter later if I'm not as satisfied with it as I originally had thought, then re-post it.)**


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